<p>Hi, I'm a US citizen living in india. I'm applying to about 10 schools back in the US but I am not applying for early action at all.
I'll have to fill out the FAFSA and the CSS/Profile, but i'm not sure when to send them. I know that the fafsa opens in Jan and the profile opens in like 4 days. When do I send in the College profile, because i'll be sending my college apps only in december. will this disadvantage my aid though most of the priority deadline are around february?
Also, living in india, the IRS requires us to file our income in the US for information purposes, and we're getting down to that right now. but when we estimate values on the forms, we estimate from our latest indian thing right? I think that would be the tax form of 2009 though.. cause the filing dates here are much later than the US.
Once we get around to completing the 2010 forms, do we send it directly to the schools, or will the Profile give me more information on how to do that?
Sorry for the huge amount of questions, i'm just lost in all this stuff!
Thanks!</p>
<p>You can get an estimate of your FAFSA EFC now, by running your family’s numbers through the calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and at [College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Calculate Your Cost – BigFuture | College Board) The real FAFSA won’t be online until January 1. That is the one the colleges/universities will use. As soon as possible on or after January 1, you can file the FAFSA. When you have your real numbers for the taxes, you can edit the income figures. The figures that you include for savings, stocks, etc. don’t need to be edited because those were the figures for the particular day that you filed the FAFSA.</p>
<p>All figures must be converted to USD at exchange of the day of filing. </p>
<p>I know that people living abroad have different tax dates, but now that you have to file the FAFSA, your parents need to crank out their US tax forms earlier in the year. It is a drag, but it is necessary. We have to do it too, because FAFSA can be filed on Jan. 1, and many of us don’t post our tax returns until April 15. Yes, there will be a certain amount of estimating because the Indian tax forms are due at different dates than the US tax forms (been there done that in another country myself), but your parents should be able to sort this out. If they can’t, they can contact the financial aid offices at the colleges/universities that you are applying to, and ask for advice for your specific situation.</p>
<p>When you complete the FAFSA and the CSS Profile, you can select the colleges/universities that you want the information to be sent to. It is free for FAFSA, and you pay a fee for CSS Profile. If you want to apply to more institutions than there is space to list in the FAFSA, complete the application for that number of institutions, and when you have the response from FAFSA indidcating that the data has been sent, go back into your account and edit the list, and then send the data to that set of colleges/universities.</p>
<p>Wishing you and your family all the best!</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, that helps!
One more thing- if i estimate and fill in the CSS/profile in October,can i send it to my schools? or will they need my application too? cause filing Financial Aid forms early maximizes aid, right?</p>
<p>In order to package your financial aid, schools are going to need your parent’s 2010 information and a completed FAFSA (and Profile, if required). Having a “will file” status may preserve your early filing date at some schools, but not all…and I don’t believe that schools can actually award federal aid while FAFSA is still showing “will file”. The bottom line is that your folks need to file their tax returns much earlier next year and you should file FAFSA and Profile as soon as that happens.</p>
<p>No, i know that but see, the thing in India is that the companies, banks, etc give you the relevant statements only on march 30th. Why they do that, I do not know. So to file the ACTUAL taxes and get the returns by the priority deadlines is a tough ask. I’ll be emailing each college’s financial aid office and asking them what they say about it. But i thought of two alternatives-
- There are some provisional statements that the banks and companies can give. It’s official (most probably) and sort of a projection of the interest and stuff. Could i give that?
- or could i give the returns for 2009 along with these provisional documents?
thanks.</p>